French Formula 3 1973

Jacques-Henry Laffite continued his ascent through French motor racing with a commanding victory in the Formula 3 championship. He drove a Martini for the BP France team, as he had in Formule Renault in 1972, and was paired with Jean-Pierre Paoli in new Holbay-powered MK12s. Also in Martinis were the ORECA pairing of Christian Ethuin and "Jean Max", using Vegantune power and running under the Motul Defence Mondiale banner, and Ecurie Volant Shell's team of Bernard Béguin and Bernard Chevanne, also using the Holbay powerplant. The factory Societé des Automobiles Alpines team of Michel Leclère and Alain Serpaggi used Renault R18-based engines built by Bernard Dudot.

March continued to make some headway and had two leading runners, Jean Ragnotti in the Antar-backed Ecurie Filipinetti March 733-Holbay and Pierre-François Rousselot in Ecurie ELF's 733-Holbay. Larry Perkins did well to win at La Châtre in May in his private Team Cowangie GRD 372.

The Championnat de France de Formule 3 consisted of 23 rounds including the major Internationals at the Nürburgring, Monaco and Monza plus five British races: at Silverstone 8 Apr, Brands Hatch 29 Jul, Thruxton 5 Aug, Oulton Park 7 Oct, Mallory Park 14 Oct and Brands Hatch 21 Oct. Most of these races attracted all the top French runners but the only one shown by Echappement's season review as being a round of the French series was the October Brands. Very curiously, the race at Oulton Park in October clashed with the Coupe du Salon at Montlhéry; only three drivers went to Oulton. We are most grateful for the help of Pascal Katabian at the International Race Results and Data Association for his assistance in determing the championship structure.

It has not yet been possible to decypher the points system used in 1973. If it followed the pattern of 1972, then only French drivers would have scored points at each race using the traditional 9-6-4-3-2-1 system but with the application of a coefficient for each race. Whether these coefficients were based on the drivers competing or predetermined at the start of the seasons is not yet known. If anyone understands what was going on, please let us know!

The research

The 1973 results have been compiled by Chris Townsend using original period documents, including organisers' results sheets and practice times, and annotated programmes, plus reports in Echappement as well as some reports in the main British magazines Autosport and Motoring News.

Please get in touch if you have any F3 entry lists, programs or official results hand-outs.

March chassis records and the observations made at the time by Adam Ferrington when the cars came to English races allow a lot of the F3 cars of this period to be identified. Any information at all on Ensigns would be greatly appreciated.